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Stories from October, 2013

As part of our celebration of A Wardrobe of Whisky’s third birthday, I am giving away a £100 bottle of whisky, so for an extra chance ( each day I will add a new task ) you can share with us your favorite whisky.

So today for a new chance to win a fabulous single malt whisky, add a comment with your favorite whisky and share this post. One more chance to win a fantastic bottle of single malt whisky, and yes, £100 can still buy very good whisky.

A Wardrobe of Whisky turns three years old somewhere between October and November so to celebrate such mythical age at which raw spirit turns into single malt whisky I have decided to give away a £100 bottle of whisky. Any whisky you choose. For free. Serious.

At last, after writing almost one month ago my experience at The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show I have written the whole set of tasting notes. So here you have all the whiskies I tasted scored and reviewed. The whiskies are shown in the exact order that I tasted them.

Warning! 100 Bottles of whisky ahead. Keep your wallet in a safe remote place or you will end up ordering great stuff… much like me.

“Very nice! Overwhelming but really nice! I love this Kavalan”

90

A slightly strange experiment from Kavalan, using first fill American wine casks for maturation after planing and retoasting the wood. Measured wine influence with some great classic American oak flavours.

This dram has a cooper-like color.

Nose (90): more than average.
honey, fruits, biscuits, citrus.

Palate (90): powerful.
honey, fruits, wood, pepper, floral, citrus.

Finish (89): longer than average.
honey, floral, biscuits.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Kavalan Solist Vinho Cask with 90 points over 100.

If you are new to Single Malt Whisky this book will give you an interesting and fast insight into Whiskey world and it will surely move you to learn more and more about this deliciously complex spirit.

I don’t usually do reviews of whisky books although I have quite a collection of them at home. This book, Whiskey by John Lamond, that has fallen in my hands is part of the Princenton Architectural Press’s Instant Expert series.

The idea behind the book is to turn yourself into a expert in a pocket book that you can carry with you. Have they succeed on the task? No, mainly because you can’t be turned into a whisky expert by any book but I have to say it is a quite interesting reading.

The book is structured in several parts, each of them quite accessible.

The first section is about whisky fundamentals were briefly you are introduced to whisky ingredients, the different steps involved in making whisky, the different types and some tips about how to drink whisky ( you should really read this one if you are interesting in learning how to taste whisky ).

Then the second part of the book is a collection of distilleries information and must-know as well as tasting notes without scores ( but with an useful “Expert Essential” seal on some bottles ) of Single Malts, Blends, Irish Whiskey, American whiskeys and international whiskies.

The thrid and quite interesting part of the book is about several topics quite related to the whisky world: how to enjoy the whisky best, bottles and age statements, styles of whisky, tips for buying at auction and retails ( if you really want to save money check prices first at A Wardrobe of Whisky ) and tips about how to store your whisky to get the best of it. Finally it has a list of places where you can learn more about whisky.

Guess who tasted one fifth of The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show! Taking place at London, near Borough Market, this is maybe the biggest UK Whisky Festival with hundreds of whisky bottles from many distillers all around the world.

So there I am. One year later I am back to London for TWE Whisky Show. This year I have stayed two full days ( or so I thought ), Sunday and Monday for the Trade Day. Do you want me to tell you the good or the bad things first? Well, anyway, I am going to tell you both.

The great things about the show have been the amount of whiskies to taste, a bit over 500 this year and the quality of most of them. Lots of great stuff for tasting and barely eleven hours to taste them. Between the great whiskies I can think now of both Karuizawa, several Paul John whiskies I tasted, some Amruts, some Signatory drams, a Laphroaig, … I have made a list at the end of the post so you don’t miss them. ( I have just secured mine :P )

A 35 year old single cask whisky from the Isle of Jura, distilled in 1976 and bottled in 2012 by Berry Brothers & Rudd. This one comes from cask 888, so we suspect this may be snapped up by fans of lucky numbers...

“Very fruity Arran with an almost pink color. The high strength bottling saves an uninteresting whisky...umm... not exactly uninteresting but Amarone cask doesn't get the best of this single malt”

88

Colour: Burnished Copper Nose: Poached pears and honey followed by toasted almonds and a subtle touch of cranberry. With water a coffee note appears together with chocolate orange and mellow butterscotch. Palate: Dark chocolate, cherry and turkish delights are evident as are stewed fruits and toffee. Muscular notes of dark plum wrestle with bitter-sweet apricots and a hint of cinnamon. Finish: A well-balanced combination of the finesse of The Arran Malt and the restrained fruit and oak from the Amarone casks. Concentrated and elegant this malt delivers on all levels.

“Very good whisky. Tastes really complex with a great malt. I will get a bottle of this as soon as I have money again”

91

A single cask Rosebank 21yo bottled by The Whisky Exchange with one of our stylish retro labels inspired by classic whisky designs from days gone by. This one is from an ex-bourbon cask and is delightfully sweet and elegant, even if we do say so ourselves.

This Aultmore from our single cask range is a Speysider that displays an intriguing complexity well beyond its years, whilst still maintaining a citrus-y freshness. This stems from the fact that it was matured in a first-fill sherry. It was distilled on the 12th March 2007, aged for 5 years and bottled in May 2012. A release of 628 bottles.

Single Malt Whisky is an exciting and incredible drink. I never get tired of tasting new drams and surprisingly ( at least for me ) most of them are quite different of each other. But one of the things people loves more about malt whisky is how it looks on the glass: the color of whisky.

Color is usually a by-product of the years spent in the cask, and other times just the result of the distiller adding caramel to the whisky to get “a single color through batches”. So…

About

Welcome to A Wardrobe of Whisky. I am Miguel.

This whisky blog is a way of handling my collection of single malts, find easily the best buy whisky prices for top online shops and a quest for finding the ultimate
single malt and the joys of failing the task.